My father regularly talks about the first time he got to march in the annual Mummer’s Parade, an ancient tradition in the cannon of Philadelphia experiences that marks the first day of each year. His eyes sparkle when he recalls the euphoria and elation that swelled throughout his glorious day on Broad Street. He always remarks that his feet never touched the ground between South Philly and City Hall. You might even observe an act of mild levitation each time he tells the tale.

If my forecasting abilities are even passable, I would predict a feeling of the same sort as I trek the five Boroughs this coming Sunday morning. New York may very well be the first marathon I get to run without the benefit of me feet ever touching the ground, from the Staten Island start to the Central Park Finish.

As Team Palumbo continues to work toward Philly Marathon day (November 20th), me and fellow Running Leader Justin Heaton have decided to fundraise for Students Run Philly Style. We’re staging a friendly competition to see who can raise more. We haven’t decided what the stakes are yet, but you can help me come out on top by visiting my page and clicking either “Make a Donation” (on the left) or “Sponsor Me” (on the right) to make a donation to my fundraising effort.

If you know me at all, you know this program means the world to me. If you have any doubt, please visit my page, read the description, then read the many positive things I have written about the program on this site.

Thanks!

I often find myself quoting lines from the 2007 running documentary Spirit of the Marathon when talking or writing about the sport. Since the film follows various stories up to and through the 2005 Chicago Marathon, whose 2011 version was run yesterday, it seems as good a time as any to pull out a line as I reflect on yesterday’s experience with Team Palumbo at the Long Beach Island 18 Miler. In the opening sequence of the film, Olympian and winner of that 2005 Chicago Marathon, states, “Sometimes the moments that challenge us the most, define us.”

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“Runners are boneheads, man,” quipped the Mayor of Running as we talked race-day preparations and pacing strategy in light of the much-warmer-than-ideal temperatures on slate for the following morning; “Don’t be a bonehead.” When Bart gives me advice, I tend to listen, but this was a particularly tough pill to swallow. I had been preparing for this one day - my first ever Chicago Marathon - for the preceding six months, training harder (and smarter) than I ever had before. And Bart knew all about it. We had exchanged several emails and spoke in person a few times over that six month period. By way of the Runner’s World Challenge, he had helped coach me to a 10-minute PR at The San Francisco Marathon two months prior, employing an optimized negative split strategy suited perfectly for the course. It was his vote of confidence in the work I’d done that inspired an ambitious 3:30 Chicago goal to begin with. In short, Bart was very connected to my process. Oh, and he just happens to be a bit of an expert on the whole “running” thing. So when he and Jen Van Allen, another fine Runner’s World expert who happens to know a thing or two about running in the heat, were trying to convince me to “dial back” my goal a few minutes, it should have been a no-brainer.

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I got back to my desk this afternoon to find a message from Students Run Philly Style in my voicemail box. Seeing as I had been corresponding with